Later today, at 8:14pm Eastern, the US military will once again be sending up its robotic mini space shuttle, the X-37B, once described by the Iranian government as a “secret space warplane”.
Despite the Iranian excitability, however, the X-37B probably won’t be doing anything very aggressive or hostile. Not this time, anyway. According to the US Space Force and the Department of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, in charge of the mission:
“The X-37B Mission 7 will launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time, designated USSF-52, with a wide range of test and experimentation objectives. These tests include operating the reusable spaceplane in new orbital regimes, experimenting with future space domain awareness technologies, and investigating the radiation effects on materials provided by NASA.”
So there will be some innocuous civilian NASA science business going on. There will also, however, be some experimentation with “space domain awareness”. That sounds suitably anodyne, but in fact it is a military mission. It’s one half of the ability to wage war in space.
Later today, at 8:14pm Eastern, the US military will once again be sending up its robotic mini space shuttle, the X-37B, once described by the Iranian government as a “secret space warplane”.
Despite the Iranian excitability, however, the X-37B probably won’t be doing anything very aggressive or hostile. Not this time, anyway. According to the US Space Force and the Department of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, in charge of the mission:
“The X-37B Mission 7 will launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time, designated USSF-52, with a wide range of test and experimentation objectives. These tests include operating the reusable spaceplane in new orbital regimes, experimenting with future space domain awareness technologies, and investigating the radiation effects on materials provided by NASA.”
So there will be some innocuous civilian NASA science business going on. There will also, however, be some experimentation with “space domain awareness”. That sounds suitably anodyne, but in fact it is a military mission. It’s one half of the ability to wage war in space.